Barns & Equipment

A few years ago, when I was approached about writing a column for this magazine, one question the editor asked me to respond to was: “What is the one tool I couldn’t do without?” It was a more daunting task than I anticipated. Just about the time I settled on an answer, another would crop up.

Situation No. 1

You just finished changing the alternator on the haybine and are happy that it can now go back to work, cutting the alfalfa before the rain hits tomorrow.

As summer heats up, water becomes the number-one topic of conversation. The lack or abundance thereof is critical to farms and dairies alike and is particularly important when considering intake in relation to milk production.

Harvesting high-quality milk as quickly and efficiently as possible is more important than ever for large dairy farms. For this reason, rotary parlors have become a popular option for farms looking to transition from milking cows in straight parlors.

Have you ever noticed that on some dairies, milking units are not as clean as on other dairies? Some of this may be related to how often they are cleaned, but there can be other factors at play as well.

Some of the most common questions I hear from clients are: How can my employees milk faster? Should I expand my parlor to milk more cows? How can I milk more cows when we can barely finish milking what we have?